


Colonel and Lieutenant Commander

by Blackflameswhitesmoke (Noirkatrose)



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Army, F/M, How to scare superheroes, Mentions of concentration camps, Mentions of torture and aftermath, Navy, Other, PTSD, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Roadtrips, planes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-24
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-02-26 20:15:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2664917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noirkatrose/pseuds/Blackflameswhitesmoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam finds out what Steve does in his downtime and that downtime starts to help with the search for Bucky. Will be more tags added as they are needed so keep an eye on the ratings please.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. And just when I thought you couldn't surprise me anymore

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any of the Characters characters unless they're OCs, otherwise just borrowing. Let me know if you wish to use any of it. I apologize if anyone seems to OOC. Enjoy!

Of all the things Sam could have thought of doing when he said "When do we start?" not two hours ago in the graveyard, standing in the arrivals area of the international airport was not one of them. Nor was picking up a gorgeous Jeep with all the bells and whistles from the long term parking. But here he was, with the one and only Captain America waiting on a flight from either Seattle, London, or Honalulu. Not that he knew, as Steve hadn't really said anything other then giving directions to the taxi driver. Sam spared a moment to consider where Steve's bike was but that wasn't the main problem here. And since he knew that none of the Avengers were helping them on this, he was confused as to who they could possibly be waiting for as neither Steve nor Natasha had mentioned outside help. 

Noticing the increase in people around him, he realized the flight from Honalulu had arrived. Sunburnt tourists and business men flowed past him. He spotted several navy uniforms here and there and guessed they were from Pearl Harbour or the pacific arena. However his attention was pulled away from this when one of these uniforms started walking straight for them. Or more specifically, Steve. On closer inspection, the navy personnel appeared to be a 5'9" dark haired female. Suddenly a sharp crack broke his contemplations and he started. The Navy Girl, as he had dubbed her, had just proceeded to slap Steve, then kiss him. And Sam meant kiss him, like with tongue and at least 30 seconds. When they broke for air the first words out of her mouth were "You absolute fucking idiot! Pick up the damn phone! The only reason I knew you survive the helicarriers is because Pepper called me! And last time I checked Ms. Potts was a CEO and had better things to do then keep track of you! Seriously! You guys need a line we can call for fucking updates. Oh, sorry didn't see you there. Lieutenant Commander Penelope Wesston and you are?"

It took Sam an embarrassing few moments to realize that the last part had been directed towards himself. So he did the only thing he could think of under the circumstances and introduced himself. "Sam Wilson, former USAF pararescue."

"Pleasure, call me Penny. Now," and she turned back to Steve, "Do you have a plan or are we winging this?"

"Nat just gave me the data. I figured you could help us plan while you're on leave then we can start searching. How long are you off for?"

"Three weeks, so we can start looking before I'm gone unless certain events happen in which case I have to cut out back to Pearl early. Is the file English or Russian?"

As Steve and Penny bickered over the file and classified and what being on leave meant, they walked towards the doors, Penny's bag slung over Steve's shoulder. Sam took this time to actually study Penny, immediately realizing that she wasn't actually navy. No, Steve had been sucking face with a marine and a decorated marine by the looks of her. He wondered how Steve had met her and better yet, why nobody seemed to know about her. Although, as he looked around them, most people glanced and saw Penny's uniform and didn't even look to see who she was with. They just saw a returning servicewomen and her family and friends making Captain America completely invisible. 

Once they reached the jeep, Penny grabbed the keys from Steve and got into the drivers side while Steve walked around to the passengers after tossing her duffle into the back. Sam himself got into the back and buckled up. Penny glanced in her mirrors, then reversed out and headed for the freeway. After about 20 minutes of silence Sam asked the question that was burning in the back of his mind. "So umm, Steve. You didn't mention a girl."

"He didn't?" Penny responded, glancing quickly at Steve who was blushing slightly. She turned her attention back to the road. "With him being such a public figure we really just kept it to ourselves and my superiors and since I'm dating a fellow solider his superiors as well which took a bit of effort."

Beside her Steve snorted in response to the comment. Sam frowned, confused. "Wouldn't that have been SHIELD?"

Steve answered while Penny laughed. "Technically, since I was MIA, presumed KIA, I was never officially discharged from the Army. So when I woke up I was treated like a POW by the Army. I got back pay, a raise, and a promotion. I technically hold the rank of Colonel now and was only on loan to SHIELD. The paper work was promptly lost and I don't think that even SHIELD knew. I have to teach classes at a few of the bases on my downtime but otherwise I am in the reserves now so I'm not active anymore."

"Fuck. So your superiors would be?"

"The people in charge of the army. Techincally I am affiliated with the Rangers but have no unit. So, yeah."

"That's useful information. But it still doesn't answer the question."

Penny grinned at Steve annoyed sigh. "You might as well tell him, we got a fair drive in from of us still."

"Right" said Steve, "So after New York I went on the road trip Bucky" here his voice hitched and Penny squeezed his hand " and me promised we were going on 60 odd years late."

Flashback

Even three weeks into his road trip Steve still wasn't use to the overwhelming amount of choice. As he stood in a grocers in Los Angeles and considered the difference between today's food selection and prices and what he was use to, some behind him cleared their throat. "Oh, sorry" said Steve as he moved to the left and went back to considering which was the best can of beans to buy. 

"Do you prefer any particular flavour or just want something different?" Came a feminine voice from his right. 

Steve started and proceeded to drop the two cans he was holding as he moved into a defendable position. However, the cans never hit the floor. Steve looked at them, then the hands holding them. His gaze traced the arms and up into the women's face only for his brain to suddenly click that she was in an uniform. 

"Sorry!" She said with a self conscious grin, "Didn't mean to startle you. Just thought you might need some help sir. I'm Penny, well Lieutenant Wesston, but Penny's fine." She trailed off slowly.

Steve blinked before responding "Uh, Rogers, Steve Rogers. It's fine, wasn't paying as close attention as I should have. Ah, I have no idea what I'm looking for. As long as it's edible, I'm good."

"I find it hard after a long term deployment where I have fixed meals to pick something as well. Usually I just go with the basics and when I start feeling more adventurous I move into the interesting ones. Try this one." As she was say this, she had slipped the two cans that shed caught back onto the shelves and instead grabbed the store brand one. "Ain't the best but it's closest to plain. Or, you could buy tomato sause and dried beans and make your own if you want sir."

"Thanks. And you don't have to call me sir."

"Last time I checked Captain Rogers, I did. I should have saluted to but ya know. Do you want help with the shopping? I'm on leave and have nothing better to do."

"Its fine, call me Steve. No, I think I'm good. Bye"

With that Steve nodded and quickly walked away. Once out of the aisle, he paused to check his list, then headed down the cereal aisle for porridge. Yet again he was faced with a ridiculous amount of choice.

"I swear I'm not stalking you! Left a bit please." Came Penny's rather sheepish voice from behind him.

"Really? You sure?" Steve replied without thinking as he moved out of her way. Penny reached up and grabbed a box to stick in her basket and turned away and without thinking Steve blurted "Why are there so many types? And what's the oatmeal?" 'Shit. Smooth Rogers, real smooth.'

Penny turned back towards him and raised an eyebrow "You want your friendly stalkers advice on oatmeal?"

"No, porridge. And I thought you weren't stalking me darlin'."

"And there's the famous charm. Well, your right about the stalker thing. Now, either grab that bag on the bottom there, or the stuff from the bulk bins if you only want a small amount. But if your moving a lot, I'd suggest the packets of instant oatmeal. All you do is add hot water and stir. The brown sugar and maple is awesome, as is the apple and cinnamon and give that here." 

Steve jumped as she snatched his shopping list from him. "So maybe this multipack thing?"

"Only if you think you can eat the other ones. Grab it and come on."

So Steve grabbed it and suddenly was pushed, pulled and prodded through the grocers by a 5'9" spitfire in uniform. The next thing he knew they were exiting the shop and heading for the parking lot. 

"So where'd ya park? The black rental is mine." Penny gestured with a shopping bag to a rather odd vechicle parked in the shade.

"The bike" was Steve's response as he walked over to it. He loaded his shopping into his bags evenly and grabbed his helmet. 

"Sweet ride, custom Harley. Mines a Vulcan, when I get time to ride it."

For the third time in 30 minutes Steve jumped. "Fuck darlin'! Stop startling me or I'm giving you a bell."  
"A bell."

"Shit, that was suppose to be in my head."

"I don't know what shocked me more, you swearing or the bell comment. Either way, all my brothers childhoods are ruined."

"Your brothers? What?"

"They grew up in love with Captain America. I on the other hand, loved barbies and horses. And books, not comics. Not that the comics were bad or anything. Shit, that came out wrong."

"Yeah, kinda did darlin'."

"What's with the darling?"

"What am I suppose to use?"

"I have no idea you know? Hmm, good question. Anyways, I came over to admire the bike, not discuss you letting America fall into a cesspit of moral ambiguity."

"You like sassing don't you honey."

"I have decided to like the endearments. And yes, I am scarastic, witty, and sassy."

"What helps you sleep darlin'. Thanks for the complement to the bike I'm sure was somewhere in there."

"You are welcome kind sir."

"Seriously?"

"Yep!"

"Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"On leave for 48 hours as off 1 hour ago. So nowhere right now. You?"

"Hotel to put the stuff away."

"You didn't get any perishables."

"No. You know that, you did my shopping"

"Right, so no hotel. You are following me to the market. You'll love it. It's awesome."

"Ok?"

"Yay!"

And suddenly he was alone as Penny ran for her car which she soon pulled in front of him and yelled "Coming?"

"Yah, hold your horses."

"Fine."

So Steve found himself at a crowded market which was actually fun. Then at an outdoor theatre, then dinner, and a walk down the beach. He finally returned to the Hotel before he realized that he had done none of the things on his list. However, he had made a new friend. Looking down at his phone, he found a text notification flashing.

From Penny W.  
Hey! I stuck myself in your phone, then texted me and am texting you back

To Penny W.  
What?

From Penny W.  
We have each other's numbers

To Penny W.  
Why didn't you say that? 

From Penny W.  
Someone's got to have sent you messages with u, r, btw, etcs in them

And you have issues with mine

To Penny W.  
I just ignore them.

From Penny W.  
New world! Embrace it! :)

To Penny W.  
I am working on it.

From Penny W.  
You're doing good. See you later. Night! :)

To Penny W.  
Good night.

End Flashback

Sam was confused. Well, maybe a bit shocked too but mostly confused. "So basically she teased you and dragged you around LA for a day."

"Well, I also texted him for some of the night and we had breakfast before he left the next day." Came Penny's comment as she turned off the freeway following the signs to Norfolk.

"Where are we going?"

"My house, hey hon, did you call my parents so they could stock it?"

"Yes, and the fish are fine your mom says. Also, dinner at their house Friday with Sam." replied Steve, glancing up from the file for a second.

"Wait, Penny's parents invited me for supper. Someone they haven't met." Sam was just getting more confused, first a girlfriend who was Navy, then her parents knew Steve? 

"My father is a Vice Admiral and my mother has worked as a nurse in multiple base hospitals. Yep, they've met Steve. And they are well aware of what happened. My father was the one to call me about SHIELD and the helicarriers just before Pepper called. Anywho, we're home!"

Sam looked around and realized that they had pulled into a garage while he was being overloaded on information. As Steve and Penny had already left, he slowly got out, grabbed his gear and trailed behind them into the kitchen. There was a slow cooker on the middle of the counter with a note attached and a large glass aquarium along the wall. 

"So this is the kitchen" commented Penny as she interupted Sam's increasingly bewildered thoughts "and that's the living room on the other side of the tank. This is the entrance hall, that's the study/ Steve's art shit/ my hobby stuff and the downstairs toilet. If you follow me up the room on the left is for you, the door across is the bathroom and the rest are spare rooms as well. The attic is up those stairs and that's mine and Steve's room and ensuite. The basement is a TV / ruckus room/ gym. It's the only TV in the house and I'm not here often enough for cable, but there's netflix on the xbox. Also, a ridiculous number of movies and shows on disc. Oh, the library's in the study, feel free to grab what you want. Questions?"

"How old are you that you have a house?"

"Really?"

"Shit, sorry, that was rude. I just mean, you have a house."

"I work too damn much to spend money. I will admit that it was mostly bare until I started seriously seeing Steve hence the gym, but 30 is your answer."

"Oh." was all Sam could say. Because if the past couple of weeks wasn't strange enough, this? This just threw him completely. Of all the things he had expected to be doing, he hadn't done any off them yet. Nope, this was new and the terrifying thing about it all? He would bet his savings that Fury and Natasha had no idea about any of this at all.

"Penny, did you break Sam?"

"I didn't mean to!" Penny cried as she spun around before kissing Steve briefly. "What'd the note say?"

"Call us when you get here and your mom made us stew, should be ready shortly."

"Wonderful! Sam, grab a shower or whatever, Steve, go call my parents and find Smurf and Brown would you?"

"Aren't they living at your brothers?"

"New girlfriends allergic to cats. Are you Sam?" 

"No, I'll go get that shower now." Sam replied as he slipped away from the bickering couple who were discussing why Brown should have been living with Steve. Once he was in his room, he dumped his gear on the floor and turned the lights on. It was fairly plain and obviously a guest room. There was a pile of towels on the desk, a robe on the closet door, and a note which said:

Hope the traveling wasn't too bad dear,  
I stocked the bathroom if you need it.  
The whole house is soundproofed (for nightmares)  
We will see you all on Friday for dinner, Hope Wesston

Sam just shook his head and decided to go with the flow as fighting the river seemed pointless anyway. Especially once he got into the bathroom and found it stocked like a military bathroom. Once showered he hurried back across the hall and checked the bed. It was hard and solid. The curtains were blackouts and the room was set up spartan. Sam just shook his head and headed downstairs and joined his hosts.

Halfway down he realized what Penny had meant by cats as he found a siamese glaring at something without a tail. Several hisses later and the stairwell was free of cats. 

"Were they fighting on the stairs again" came Penny's voice from behind him.

"Yeah, do they do that often?" Sam asked as he continued to the kitchen and sat down.

"Smurf, that's the siamese, has the top floors as his domain and Brown, that's Steve's manx, has the bottom two. The stairs are the war zone as a cease fire is usually in place in the yard. Sorry, should have warned you."

"Nah, it's fine. After the week I've had I think I can handle 2 cats."

"Oh good. Just be on the lookout for my geckos as well, they got out last month and my mom ain't seen them since. How's the room?"

"Good, I like the beds. How many animals do you have?"

"Your wondering why I have animals when I'm never home aren't you? And my mom sourced the beds from somewhere, if you want a soft one you need the pullout down here. As I said, Browns Steve's, and Smurf is a stray who just moved himself in 6 years ago when I was living in an apartment in Seattle. Purebred and everything. Mom looks after them and the fish and the geckos when I'm gone, they live a block down from us. The fish has an automatic feeder so they ain't too bad, but the geckos were a present when I was 25 and have somehow survived this long."

"Whose survived?" Came Steve's question as he walked in and grabbed a chair.

Penny handed out bowls of stew as she replied "Hugs and Kisses the poor dears. Dad thinks either the cats got them or they're in the bathrooms. I'll do a sweep later for them."

"Good luck, last time they escaped it took me 2 weeks to find them."

"They love me. I'll find them soon enough."

"So long as it isn't in the bathroom at 3 am again."

"Sorry to interupted the bickering kids" drawled Sam as he tried not to laugh, "but Hugs and Kisses? And do you think your mom would give me the recipe? It's delicious."

"She'd love to. Help yourself to more then go crash or read or something. Decompress and we can start planning tomorrow." Was Penny's reply as she snagged the file from Steve when he went to read it at the table. "And I was drunk on shore leave when my equally drunk sister bought them and so I don't remember the reason behind naming them that but yep. Hugs and Kisses."

"Give that back!" Cried Steve as he attempted to grab the file back from Penny who just whacked him over the head with it. Sam couldn't help it and started laughing and Steve followed suit. And Penny didn't comment when the laughter started getting hysterical. Instead she took the dishes and cleaned up, then opened the safe and stuck her weapons and the file inside. She then turned around and raised an eyebrow. Steve got up and vanished into the hall quickly before returning to stash his weapons as well.

"Only knives allowed out at night unless it's necessary." Was Steve's defense as Sam started laughing again as Steve stuck his shield into a draw under the gun rack. 

"There's a safe in your room, I'll show you how to recode it later. It was my Grandmothers rule that all weapons had to be locked away at night and has somehow ended up in all our households. Anyways, I'm going to watch the news and chill for a bit. If you want to join me there's beer downstairs unless Mike nicked it again. Steve can go for a run or whatever but WILL NOT look at the file." With this last ashmonisment, Penny headed downstairs humming what sounded suspiously like I'm a little teapot as she went. 

Sam looked at Steve. "She is something else. You enjoy surrounding yourself with strong women there Captain?" 

"Not on purpose I swear. I'll do a perimeter sweep then head down to crash with her. Your welcome to do whatever but I'll show you the safe now before we fall asleep." Steve said as he walked up the stairs, sidestepping the cats with a grace that comes from crashing over them one too many times. He then showed Sam the safe and how to recode it then left him to his own devices. Sam debated going down to watch TV but somehow ended up crashed out on the bed as the last month caught up to him.


	2. Light before Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we have morning activities, meet Noah, and prank Sam. Fluff before heartache and betrayal basically( does that count as spoilers?).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own, just playing! Enjoy!

If there was one thing that being in the navy was known for, it was early morning starts. As Penny has always been an early morning person this really didn't bug her that much. Granted, when she woke up in her partners arms, she often wished she could stay there forever. But since the other person would always wake within about 5 minutes of the first, instead she got kisses and after Steve's run and her swim, there was usually sex. However, given how tense Steve was beside her, she figured they would be forgoing sex and instead would be studying files. Her train of thought was then interrupted by a very welcome good morning kiss.

"Good Morning love" Steve said as he tried to smile but he just looked tired. Penny had a sinking feeling that the only reason he had been in bed at all last night was to cuddle. And since he was still healing he really shouldn't have missed any sleep.

"Did you get any sleep last night?

"Not much. I'm headed for my run, what about you?"

"Let me grab my swimming stuff and you can run round the lake while I do laps. That work?"

"Yeah, coffee?"

"Please."

Penny watched as Steve slipped out of bed and headed for the kitchen to make the offered coffee. She sighed and slipped out of their warm bed herself and grabbed her wetsuit since the lake in question, while nice and close to her house, was freezing even in the middle of summer. She then quietly wandered down stairs, taking the dirty clothes with her. Smurf was waiting at the top of the stairs as usual so she scooped him up too and walked to the kitchen. Steve glanced up and opened the door for her and she let Smurf jump down and head for the food in the garage. She dumped the clothes next to the washer by the door, then snagged Steve's coffee.

"Why? I made you one already." Grumbled Steve as he grabbed the other cup next to the coffee maker.

"Cause this one tastes like you! Now, Sam up or do we leave a note and a spare key?"

"Spare key and a note I think. Ready?"

"Yep, write the note, I'll grab the keys."

A few minutes later found Penny walking down the street holding Steve's hand as they headed for the lake 6 blocks away.  
On arrival, Steve gave her a kiss, then took off on the 5 mile circuit around the lake while Penny did up the back of her wetsuit and dove into the waters. Any residual sleep still floating around her brain was quickly chased out by the sting of cold water. She resurfaced and started across the lake, occasional moving to one side or the other to avoid other swimmers. She was about three quarters through her final lap when she felt a tug on her foot. She retaliated and after a few seconds struggle was free. So she turned round only to find her brother Noah sending a wave of water at her. So she followed the little sister code and chased him back to the dock screaming as they went. By the time they reached the dock Steve was waiting and laughing at the scene in front of him. Which lead to Penny slashing him and eventually all three of them panting on the dock soaking wet. 

"Fuck you Noah you are a bastard."

"No, I'm your brother and entitled to tease you a bit. You're the one who splashed your boyfriend."

"The boyfriend pleads his innocence and would like to go home and shower as he's not in a wet suit."

"Right" said Penny as she heaved herself up and turned to look at her brother and boyfriend on the ground, "let's go see what Sam's up to. Noah, you coming for breakfast?"

"Sure, as long as you got coffee." 

"House got stocked, we have coffee. Up and at em boys." She called as she walked away, followed by Steve and Noah as they discussed the effects of different types of water on jogging clothes.

As they got closer to the house, a familiar man turned round the corner ahead of them and Steve whispered something to her brother then took off. About 4 seconds later Noah followed at a more sedated pace. She couldn't hear what was said as they passed him but when she reached her front yard she caught the tail end of the rant "...and I don't care how many people need you, if you keep doing that, I'm hunting you down and nobody is finding your body!" so she peeked around the corner and found everyone but Sam laughing on the ground while Sam looked to be about ready to kill them. 

Penny snorted and walked past saying "I'm going to start breakfast. You can hurt each other but not painfully. Just be inside in 10 when the coffee's ready."

Just as the coffe pot hit full Penny heard the door open and in trooped the boys. They sat down quietly and each gave her big puppy eyes. She raised an eyebrow. They shuffled glanced around, and the puppy looks returned full force. So she raised a second eyebrow and waited. Predictably, Noah folded first.

"Sorry Sis, please don't burn the bacon!"

Which was followed by Sam and Steve's apology and pouts. Penny just shook her head. "You're all fine. Go get showered and dressed. Grab your coffee on the way. Noah, guests go first so you can wait til Sam's done. Understood."

"Ma'am Yes Ma'am!"

"Quit being a smart ass you idiot." Was Penny's final yell that chased the three of them up the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. Files and Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam dislikes Super Solider humor and breakfast is eaten and files are read. Also known as Sam's Morning! Note: there's a point in here where it gets kinda graphic. Be careful!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own, just playing! Enjoy!

In Sam's mind he kept lists like: most fucked up shit I've seen, most stupid things I've done, ect. One of these list was most bizarre mornings. He figured this one was probably not a top 5 but it was up there. To start with, he headed down at 6 am expecting to find Penny at the least. But no, nobody. Just a key and a note in Steve neat writing.

We are at the lake, the key is for the back door, don't worry about the alarm it's off.  
Coffee in carafe was made at 5, but turn it on, it's ready to go.  
Should be back round 7, make your self at home.  
Steve 

After blinking a few times he dumped the cold coffee and turned the machine on. Two minutes later and he had coffee. One mug later and his brain kicked in with 'They left me alone to go to a lake? What?' so he went back upstairs to grab his jogging gear. He figured he could get a decent run in before they were back without having a super solider bugging him. On his way back to the house though he heard someone come up past him.

"On your left!" And there went Steve the bastard, grinning and soaking wet? What the heck. But Sam didn't get time to actually think about this as a second man came past wearing a wet suit of all things. And just to make Sam's life better, he said "On your left" as well. Then both of the bastards ran into Penny's back yard via the alley and when he caught up to them Steve, the little bastard whom seemed to like giving him a heart attack, turned around and said "You sure your not the old one here?"

So of course Sam went off. Given the events of the past month, he figured he deserved it. Then Penny walked in, took one look at him screaming at Steve and some stranger who were on the ground and commented "I'm going to start breakfast. You can hurt each other but not painfully. Just be in in 10 when the coffee is ready."

This set the stranger off even worse while Steve finally seemed to control himself. So Sam offered him a hand and heaved Steve off the ground. The other guy finally sat up "I see what you mean Steve, he is fun to bug! Anyways," and here he turned to Sam, "I'm Noah, the oldest kid in our dysfunctional family. Sorry bout that. Feel like apologizing to Pen yet?"

"Why are we apologizing?"

"He's apologizing for trying to dunk her in the lake. Just ignore him. We should probably say sorry for the rant and that though." Interrupted Steve as he hauled Noah up and Sam got a good look at him. The first thing he noticed was he was about as tall as Steve with the exception of close cropped brown hair and grey eyes plus was also built similar to a tank. If anything, he had more muscle then Steve.

"Done ogling?" Sam started as Noah just grinned."I get it a lot, especially when people compare me to Steve. I'm going in before she decides to burn something as revenge for whatever she feels like reminding me I did!"

With that he turned around and headed in followed by Steve as Sam brought up the rear. They all sat down and Penny just looked at them. Sam wondered what was happening when suddenly the words sorry were going everywhere and a somehow already dry Penny sent them up to shower and dress. So Sam did just that before heading back downstairs. He found Penny dancing around the kitchen as she cooked. She waved him to the table and continued on. So Sam took the time to actually look around the room when he wasn't tired and confused. The kitchen itself was a cheery yellow with pine cabinets and green counter tops. The table set he was sitting at turned out to be pine as well and looked well used. But the thing that caught his attention the most was the photos. 

He had noticed that there were a lot of cool landscape and cityscape photographs in the halls but in here they were portraits mostly. People were dressed up in everything from drag to full dress uniforms. He saw Noah in some, along with quite a few people who resembled both Noah and Penny. He saw Steve's picture here and there, sometimes with other people, sometimes with Penny. There were also hand drawn portraits that Sam would bet his last dollar were done by Steve. 

"That's the family wall." Sam jumped and turned around to face Steve who was looking at the wall as well. "Penny and her mom always have a camera. Always. And I like drawing so when we re painted about 8 months ago, we put up both of our works in the most used rooms. So this is the family wall. The halls hold ones of places we've been, and random fun ones are scattered through the living room and the study. The wall of memories is downstairs though." Sam watched as Penny gave Steve a hug at the end of explaination. He suspected given her face that it wasn't just Steve's memories on that wall. "Anyways," Steve started again after a few deep breaths "all of Penny's family is Navy, and that's Penny's friends, they call themselves Navy Brats United- you'll most likely meet some of them tonight-, and the drawings are of the avengers, and please don't tell Nat I have that pic of her, umm, yeah." 

As he was talking he was pointing to different frames so Sam could follow. Sam was completely surprised to see Nat and Agent Hill on the wall. He hadn't realized that Steve considered them close enough to have multiple pictures on the wall whereas the rest of the Avengers only had on group drawing. Sam was pulled from his contemplations by the arrival of Noah and Penny starting to hand around the food. Soon the only noise was that of cutlery on plates and people enjoying good food. 

Soon enough though the silence was broken. "So, am I getting kicked out or can I help with the planning?" Noah asked as he gulped down his coffee and stood up to put his dishes away. 

"You wanna get involved?" was Steve's response.

"Your part of the family buddy, course I'm fucking involved. That, and more info about how HYDRA bases work would be awesome as next week my team ships out to start hunting them down on the African contienent."

"Africa."

"Damage control. Command has mixed teams from different military branches made up and we're wiping them out. I suspect you'll get called in soon enough too."

"I am. Once my leave is done I'm part of the backup team to the pacific platoon." Penny interjected as she rose to open the safe and retrieved Nat's file along with a box. She rearmed the safe and walked out the hall. "Coming?" 

Steve sighed and stuck the remaining dishes into the dish washer while Noah loaded the fridge with leftovers while Sam washed down the table and counters. They then moved to the study where Penny had already set up. She glanced up from erasing a white board and pointed at the desks. The boys sat down and waited for directions. Penny stuck the board back up and turned back towards them. "Sam, what languages do you speak?"

"Engish mostly and a bit of Dari here and there."

"Ok, this is all English. It's the info our guys have on the Winter Solider. Start with it. Noah, as the residential Russian speaker, you get Romanov's file. Steve, you get the German stuff from the war and the American and SSR shit too. I'm going to go through the data dump to see what's in it that's useful. Any questions?"

"Coffee?" was Noah's response while Sam and Steve shook their heads.

"There's a pot over behind you!"

"Ok, I'm good then!" was his scarastic reply.

 

Note- there will be excerpts from the files. Expect violence and the like. May be triggering.

 

With that they settled in for a long slog through burecratic speak and mission reports. Sam started on his own pile and he was shocked. Name after name stood out to him, ranking officials all over the world who had been killed to help further the HYDRA mission, the Russian plan, then back again to HYDRA's goals. They were linked by a sniper who always policed their brass and used the same style of gun. The descriptions were either a sighting of a figure in black who moved efficiently or a monster with long hair and a metal arm. Sometimes the kills were personal, a knife to the gut or a broken neck with the telltale evidence of two hands used but only one left normal markings. However, whenever he was sent after families, the kids were found alive hidden in closets, steamer trucks, and ironically enough, an oven once. Sam found the reports from Black Widow, both on her time in the Red Room with him and when he shot through her to kill his target but left her alive. In fact now that he thought about it "Hey Noah, is there notes on the results of different missions in there?"

Noah looked up, face greenish and mouth set "Yeah, why?"

Both Penny and Steve glanced up from their desks with questioning looks as Sam answered "Does it mention that he would go off mission when kids were involved perhaps?"

He heard Steve swallow noisly as Noah looked down "Yes, they often had to correct him after they sent him after targets with kids. And I mean torture brutally. In fact, they fnally stopped sending him after families with kids in the mid seventies due to the fact that no matter what they did, he wouldn't kill them and in fact would protect them from even his handlers. He also wasn't allowed anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA and there are two missions that weren't correctly done and resulted in him being kept on ice longer then necessary. The first mission he refused to take the shot, meaning one of his handlers had to run the mission. The Asset, as he's referred too, was uncontrollable afterwards and killed said handler as I quote 'he kept saying "he's my friend you bastard" as he smashed him against a tree repeatedly.' The second one he shot but didn't kill was a former Red Room asset that he was supposedly programmed to eliminate on sight. Guys, this man is going to need serious help. And if I find who did this, I'm skinning them alive."

"Oh I agree" Sam replied "I just noticed Nat's file and the kids and thought it odd that a supposed killing machine had heart. I'm thinking nobody bothered to look through all the files from all the agencies before. How did you get these?"

"By calling in favours owed to our family" was Penny's rather flippant reply. Sam jerked around to face her as Noah mirrored his move. Penny was staring at something on her screen and a scowl was slowly overtaking her face. Noah went to ask her what was wrong when Steve suddenly went white, then red, then white again. He stood up and lunged across the table towards the door. Since Penny was closest she grabbed him by his wrist and the next few seconds were a blur of bodies and swears before Penny was finally sitting on top of him whispering in his ear as she held him still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. Sometimes what we look for has already been found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a timeline is started, and all of our characters attempt not to break down. Warning: you may want to skip this chapter if you are triggered easily!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own, just playing! And I'm serious about triggers. Enjoy!

As Penny attempted to talk Steve down, Noah grabbed the file Steve had dropped in his lunge and glanced at it. Then started swearing a blue streak that managed to get everyone including the cats attention and caused Steve to freeze in place. For a few minutes nobody said anything until Steve fully relaxed and Penny sat up. She sighed and looked up at her brother. "What'd say?"

"It's about a German message to the allies about trading POWs and one of the men mentioned is a Seargent Barnes. It's listed as received at the end of the war by the SSR. They didn't respond so the Germans moved the POWs to a secure location which was raided by HYDRA three weeks later."

Sam just stared. Of all the things he had thought the fact that Barnes was found almost immediately hadn't figured into it at all. Penny's voice cut through his thoughts. 

"Is there anything about when and where they found him? And if I get off you do you promise to sit down and do breathing exercises hon?"

Noah grunted as he started to go through the files that Steve had spread everywhere as Steve nodded. So Sam watched as Penny moved and Steve sat up. He started breathing while she rubbed his back so Sam walked over to the coffee pot and poured a mug full which he handed to Steve. It took a while but Steve was eventually able to return to his papers while Noah returned to the file. After a bit Penny stood up and began to draw a timeline starting with Steve stepping into the Chamber and ending with At Home Now at the other end. There was enough whiteboards that each decade had its own and they quickly filled the most recent and the oldest. Another whiteboard was grabbed from downstairs and was used to keep track of experiments on the serum including Red Skull, Steve, the Hulk, and everything the other governments did that Penny could find in the information dump. Sam filled the white boards with different targets while Noah filled it with wipes and reprogramming dates. Steve filled in information from the Germans about HYRDA and the serum as best he could. He also wrote about Howard Stark's search for him and the finding of the Tesseract.

There was lots of times where all of them had to take a few minutes to breathe. Sam found it hard to comprehend how people could do things like this. He spent his days hearing about ex service peoples horrors and had been pararescue and had dealt with a lot of horror from POWs. The other 3 in the room with him were all special ops in some way or form and he figured this had to be just as horrible for them. But they were doing alright until Steve half choked around 3 in the afternoon. Sam glanced over to see Steve shaking as if he was going to start crying or screaming or maybe both. Penny grabbed the page that Steve has been reading and sat down suddenly. She sighed and grabbed Steve and held him as he just shook. Noah glanced at the paper as Peeny handed it to him and froze. He swallowed hard before handing it to Sam even as he walked to the whiteboard for the 40's. There he wrote the date that Barnes was found. Sam looked at it, then looked at what turned out to be a report that someone had translated to English. It essentially said, in between complaints the cold and the report on the train, that Barnes had been found within 24 hours of falling by a German patrol who brought him back to base where he had been given basic treatment and stuck into a camp. 

"Ok guys, were done today. We need a rest and to process this shit. Noah, go home. Please. Sam, go have a nap or go for a run or watch TV, I don't care, dinner will be at 6. Steve, go have a shower, I'll be up in a minute ok? I'm just going to clean up."

"Got it. I'll call some of the guys and we'll go do something later. I'll see you in the morning ok" was Noah's only response as he put the pen down. He then gave everyone including Sam a hug before letting himself out the door. 

Penny poked Steve until he was walking up the Stairs before she turned back to Sam who was standing listlessly in the doorway to the study. 

"Sam, do I have to manhandle you too?"

"No, I think I'm going to go for a run to clear my head."

"Ok, take your phone. The only plan for the rest of the day is to relax. Dinner at 6, and I'll have friends over at 8 and it's 'Night out Night' on Thursdays. You can come or stay, doesn't matter. Hopefully Steve will feel like going out but we will see I guess."

"Sure, I'll think about it. Umm, I don't know if it got mentioned but I work at the VA and do some counselling so if you need any help with him let me know ok."

"I'll add you to the list. And if you've got issues with today's fun stuff, call someone as well would you? Steve did mention why you're home to me and I'd rather not have to deal with several different peoples breakdowns."

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm off I'll see ya in a bit."

"Kay." was Penny's response as she closed the door that he had opened and walked through during the discussion. Sam turned and started running down the sidewalk following his morning route as his thoughts spun in circles.

POV CHANGE

Penny took a deep breath after she closed the door behind Sam. She looked at the staircase and considered why she thought it was a good idea to put their room at the top of two sets of stairs. Because even if they had come across a ridiculous amout of nightmare inducing material, she had still managed to find a ghost file with information that she figured would cause untold misery and paranoia for everyone involved. Because no matter how 'righteous' and 'moral' Steve was suppose to be now, the man she had met in LA had turned out to have a wiry sense of humor and a devious streak a mile long. So once he had his head on, Penny figured that some people were going to wonder what hit them. 

"I thought I was the one who was suppose to be looking lost right now." Came from a deep voice in front of her. She refocused herself on Steve's concerned face and felt like crying. Instead she gave him a small smile.

"There's something else I found right before you freaked. Do you want to know now or later?"

Steve just looked at her. "Is it about Bucky?"

"SHIELD"

"Come up, I left the shower on. You can tell me once we're done doll. I'm thinking a few minutes delay won't change it will?"

"No it wo...why are you naked? Seriously! What if Sam was still here or something! There's towels and bathrobes and clothes and sheets and.."

"Breath Penn" was Steve's response to her rather sudden panic attack. "You're Penny Wesston. This is your house. Do you need to sit?"

"Touch. Carpet, hall, pictures, couch, soft. Ok, I'm ok now I think."

As Penny listed off what she could see, Steve had wrapped his arms around her helping ground her. Once her breathing began to slow down he picked her up against all protests and carried her upstairs and into the shower with him.

"My clothes! You bastard, I like these jeans!"

"So do I, but I figured we'd wasted enough water so now we had to shower together."

"How many showers is this?"

"No idea, but that's why you have all the enviromental stuff here isn't it?"

"Some of it was your idea too." Penny shot back as she leaned around him to grab her shampoo after depositing her soaking wet clothes into the basket. Steve grabbed it from her and handed her his body wash. So he did her hair and she started with the wash cloth. This of course meant that what started as an innocent de-stress shower quickly devolved into full blown sex ending with both of them sprawled on the floor of the shower. Eventually Steve stood up to turn the water off and Penny rolled out of the tub to lay eagle spread on the floor. Steve stepped over her and dropped her towel onto her stomach.

"Why?"

"Because we have a guest and you already flipped out once about the clothes thing. So I figured I'd just give you a towel."

"Are we keeping track? And thanks I guess."

"Probably should, and your welcome." Steve responded by calling over his shoulder as he walked out of the bathroom. So Penny dragged herself up off the floor and wrapped the towel around her. She walked out of the room and got a face full of clothes.

"Seriously?!"

"You get to veto my choices when we're at home, so I get to veto yours."

"My taste is just fine! What's wrong with it?"

"You keep stealing my clothes."

"Most guys would take that as a complement you know."

"I would if I got them back."

Penny just responded with a glare as she finished pulling the sundress over her head. She then collapsed on their bed beside Steve who was staring at the ceiling. "So, do you wanna talk or are we just going to lay here?"

"What was it you found in the SHIELD dump that set you off?"

"What's called a ghost file. Basically it refers to files that link or refer to other files that are missing or have been deleted. In this case its a requisition form for a fish tank. I suspect it was made in jest between two people so never actually made official channels then when someone went to clean certain people from the system it was missed. So I went digging and found spaces where forms and orders should have been. Someone removed people from the entire internet but didn't bother to replace info where it was pulled from, especially in military and special ops databases. I'm assuming civilian or they would have paid closer attention to it."

"And this fish tank was important why?"

"Two reason: date it was requested and who requested it."

"I'm waiting...."

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Im getting even more worked up the longer it takes you to tell me..."

"Agent Phillip Coulson, 6 months after the invasion."

"....."

"Steve?"

"....."

"Steve? Hon, you're scaring me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	5. Natasha will kill us....

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which people are either intentionally or unintentionally trolled and we learn more about everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own, thanks for reading

Of all the things Sam expected to come home to, Penny sitting on Steve while holding a taser was not one of them. However, that's the sight that greeted him in the hallway outside his room when he got back from trying to get his head back on right. But as he paused to think of why Steve may have needed to get electrocuted Penny glanced up and noticed him.

"I told him we should have waited til tomorrow. But no, the idiot says he can handle it! Then he just loses it and I end up having to subdue him! I mean seriously! The fucking nerve!" 

Sam figured she would have continued on this rant for much longer had Steve not stirred and groaned at this moment. Penny immediately pointed the taser back at Steve "Steven Grant Rogers, if you pull that shit again..."

Steve just sighed then started shaking. Penny tossed to taser to a rather shocked Sam who was still standing frozen at the top of the stairs while she switched her position from one of restrain to one of comfort. Eventually the shaking subsided and Steve lifted his head. 

"I'm good I think."

"You are not. And your going up to bed til supper." as Penny told him this she pulled him up and shooed him up the stairs. Once Steve disappeared she turned back towards Sam. "Sorry, he wanted to know what I found and it basically tripped him into an episode and a panic attack." She slid down the wall and buried her head in her hands.

Sam approached slowly and crouched down after setting the taser on the hall table next to a vase. He waited patiently for her to say something. Because for all that he was a good at being a solider, he was excellent at listening which lead to his job at the VA.

"Are you waiting for me to talk to you about what I found or about how I feel?" was Penny's dry comment a few minutes later.

"Either or, or something completely different if that's what you want."

"Steve's excellent at being strong. So many years of being the weak one who kept standing up have beat that into him. I don't think many people nowadays think of that you know?" Penny shifted around so she was sitting crosslegged on the floor and so she could pull a white box out of her pocket. She fiddled with it as she continued "He's got this horrible habit of bottling it up and every time I see him I feel it takes longer to get the walls down. This time though, he's bare. He isn't handling it well and I'm just trying. I just wish we could catch a fucking break at some point here."

"He's real good a hiding certain things I've noticed."

"You're talking bout me aren't you? Everyone thinks he's this uptight, honest, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth solider's solider. But he's sarcastic, smart, and horrible at sticking to orders especially when lives are on the line. The history books fucked up there big time. When I first met him I though I had him confused with someone else cause what we perceive as Captain America is completely different from him."

"I got that after he kept going on with the "on your left" when I first met him."

" Right, he mentioned trolling you. Sorry about that. Also, thanks for helping him."

"Not a problem. I'm glad I could." Sam replied when suddenly whimpering could be heard from the device in Penny's hand. "Is that a baby monitor?"

"Yeah, I'm going to read out loud and see if that settles him. Could you see if you can get me a set of Captain America cards? I have, to quote the grinch, 'a wonderful awful idea.'"

"Umm sure?"

"The computers unlocked I think otherwise the password for it is swinghigh, one word. Just check eBay and that. I'll pay you back or just put it on my account." and with that she left him in the hallway with the taser. 

This lead to Sam sitting in the study just finishing up ordering the cards about an hour later when his phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and didn't recognize the number so he proceeded to ignore it when he heard a second phone go off. Realizing it was Steve's he grabbed it and checked the ID again. Sure enought the numbers matched but Steve's also said Nat so Sam slid his fingers across it and answered. "Rogers phone, Wilson here."

"I was getting worried why weren't you answering?"came Nat's irate voice down the line with what sounded like crowded room on the other end.

"I was engrossed in my task and Steve's sleeping."

"He's woke up for less."

"He's in bed which is like 2 floors of soundproofing away. Not going to hear you at all. Everything good?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to see how the hunts going and to make sure Steve's not going crazy. I really don't think he's going to like what he finds."

"He'll be fine I think. We're just researching stuff and planning our attack."

"No on a unsecure server I hope. And...wait a minute, you're not at the tower cause I was so where did you find soundproofing? This isn't something for civilians..."

"Penny's house."

"Who the fuck is Penny? I swear if he just randomly found someone else to drag into this..."

Penny Wesston, aka Steve's partner. They own a house."

"....."

"Natasha?"

"Steve owns a house. With a girl."

Suddenly the phone left Sam's hand and he swung around to grab it only to see Penny trying not to laugh while Steve was doing damage control which consitied of comments such as "Sorry Nat.", "Yes I have a girlfriend.", "She's got the clearance for it." Before he finally hung up looking completely exasperated. "Did you have to tell her that Sam? She's going to kill me next time I see her."

"It never even occurred to me, I just wanted to reassure her...sorry."

"That's fine, I'm sure we'll all survive, maybe. It's Nat so it's a toss up I guess."

"You are all idiots." Penny broke in once she stopped giggling. "Never mind the crazy ex Russian assassin, did you get the card?"

"Cards?" Steve interrupted before Sam could answer.

"Oh Right, I'd sent you up. I got Sam to order a set of cards like the ones that Fury used for his display after Coulson's death was called. So you could sign them and I could send them one at a time to him if I can figure out where he is. I figured we could use it to freak him out. Also, we need a way to get Fury so you get to plan it."

Sam looked at her I'm-Innocence-Don't-Mind-Me look and started laughing. Penny and Steve followed suit and it took a bit for the three of them to calm down. Penny then dragged Steve to the kitchen and got him started on the veggies while she stuck the roast in. Sam took the time to organize everything in the room before wandering downstairs for the first time to explore the basement. The state of the art TV and game consoles surprised him and di the sheer amount of gym equipment and the floor to ceiling shelves full of books, movies, games, and knicknacks from around the world. There was also Memorial Wall that Steve had mentioned earlier and Sam drifted towards it. It appeared to be by date given that the first pictures were drawings as opposed to the pictures further down. The first picture was of a middle age couple and the caption read Sarah and George Rogers. It was followed by pictures of the Howling Commandos and then a black and white picture with the names Penelope and Mervin Wesston.

"That would be my Grandparents. They died when I was 8 in a car crash."

Sam jumped and turned around to face Penny who was looking at the wall with a melcohany look on her face. "Sorry to hear, umm, so is it by date?"

Penny took a breath "yeah, so Steve's parents, then the next family is Bucky's. Then the Commandos, then my Grandparents. Next is my best friend who died in a accident when we were 15, then we get the war pictures. Of course they're all labeled and if you look at the backs it'll actually tell you how they are related to us. Anyway, dinners ready whenever you are ready."

"Sure, be right up." Penny smiled in response before turning and heading up while Sam looked back at the wall and winced at the amount of men and women in uniform on the wall before following her up. They ate before heading back to the study to look at more paperwork. Sam ended up engrossed in reports on required food for enclaves or so it claimed and ended up jumping when the doorbell rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you Enjoyed it!


	6. Natasha's Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha's last few days since leaving the graveyard. And yes, she pissed. And upset, and not happy, and panicking, and......well, there is something wrong with her emotions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't own, just playing! Now, I'd like to point out that Natasha Romanoav is much harder to write then an OFC or Wilson esp. since 'Falcon' is different from his comic book/ TV counterparts (or at least the ones I've read/watched under duress via well meaning friends) whereas Nat has so much back story to her that goes with the comics more. So I tried to make her seem believable. Not sure how much I succeeded considering what I was going for but there we go! Enjoy!

Natalia, or Natasha as she was now referred to as, had went underground as soon as she could. With all her covers blown and her life on the Internet thanks to the SHIELD information dump all she wanted was a chance to regroup. So after a quick stop at Stark Industries to 'borrow' some equipment such as an untraceable phone Nat immediately checked in with Fury who basically just informed her to do whatever PR work Hill needed her for and to meet him in Barcelona in 3 weeks. So she quickly grabbed a brown wig to bid her trademark hair and ended up grabbing a few more hair dyes and various clothes before setting a few traps and vacating the premises. 

The first place she headed for was Clint's apartment building even though he was somewhere in Eastern Europe and probably wouldn't even know that SHIELD had collapsed until his handler didn't make contact. Her eyes suddenly blurred and she ducked into a nearby alley to catch her breath. Several minutes later found her on a bus heading east curse internally. She knew she had been here before, double crossed, back stabbed, the whole works. So why was it affecting her now? She wasn't a bloody teenager prone to mood swings this time. At least she was still paying attention to her surroundings as she picked up on the tail as she switched buses. 

By the time she reached Clint's building she'd lost the first tail, and proceeded to lose the next few that she picked up as well. A year, or even a month ago would have found her getting the jump on the agents for information but right now she couldn't be bothered. Instead she stayed in sweeping for bugs in the basement apartment that Clint never bothered to rent out before showering. After the shower came food and a quick check in with everyone she could reach. Which wasn't much given that most of them were either dead or underground. A short text to Steve was replied to with a 'We are fine.' So she double checked the perimeter before crashing hard.

12 hours later found her checking her weapons and what the news outlets were saying. The negative backlash sickened her and before she knew it her phone was in hand and dialing Wilson. Nat hung up on the answering machine and after a seconds debate tried Steve's phone.

"Rogers phone, Wilson here."

"I was getting worried why weren't you answering?" Nat couldn't help the accusatory tone in her voice but given the headlines on Fox she figured it was somewhat justified.

"I'm rather engrossed in my task and Steve's sleeping."

"He's woke up for less." How the hell did he get Steve to sleep? She had honestly expected them to be on the road following leads already by now.

"He's in bed which is like 2 floors of soundproofing away. Not going to hear you at all. Everything good?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to see how the hunts going and to make sure Steve's not going crazy. I really don't think he's going to like what he finds." She left out the bit about the current political atmosphere so as not to alarm Wilson.

"He'll be fine I think. We're just researching stuff and planning our attack."

"No on a unsecure server I hope. And...wait a minute, you're not at the tower cause I was so where did you find soundproofing? This isn't something for civilians..." 

"Penny's house." Wait, what?

"Who the fuck is Penny? I swear if he just randomly found someone else to drag into this..."

"Penny Wesston, aka Steve's partner. They own a house."

"....."

"Natasha?"

"Steve owns a house. With a girl."  
Nat spit out several Russian swears before being interrupted by Steve's "Natasha?"

"Rogers, what have we discussed about withholding valuable information?"

"Sorry Nat." was his response and to top it off the bastard didn't sound sorry at all.

"What the fuck does Sam mean by 'Partner'?"

"Yes I have a girlfriend." That сукин сын, Я собираюсь задушить его в следующий раз я вижу его.

"You dragged some girl from who knows were into this fucking mess? Does she even know anything?"

"She's got the clearance for it."

"I don't care if she's the head of the CIA, this is personal! You don't go....Steve? Rogers!" she glared down at the phone as the dial tone flowed out of the speakers. Nat contemplated throwing the phone but knowing Stark it would be indestructible and besides, Clint, Hill and that needed to get ahold of her somehow. So she settled for sending both Steve and Wilson 'I'm disappointed in you' messages before calling Hill herself.

The world seemed to tilt back onto its axis when Hill answered with her normal straightforward. "Hill."

"Do you know a Penny Wesston?"

"Not personally but I remember the name from somewhere. Could be related to George Wesston. He's a Vice Admiral in the Navy. If I remember correctly he's got a daughter named Penelope. Why?"

"Did you know Rogers has a girlfriend?"

"Really?" Hill's voice went blank immediately piquing Nat's interest.

"You did didn't you."

"Potts may have mentioned something about a couples dinner next time everyone and their partners were in town. Stark pointed out that Captain America was single and Potts hit the back of his head and asked what that made Pen then to which Stark replied 'Steve's girlfriend'. They were out of hearing shortly after that so I couldn't follow up. That was 7, 8 months ago so it's not some random thing if Pen and Penny are the same."

"Anyone ever told you you give away to much?"

"I'm telling you what you want and only what you want, not what you need."

"Are you hinting?"

"I've been fucking hinting at both you and Barton but no, nobody listens to me past the important shit. Whada you need Romanov?"

"Information on Rogers girlfriend! You know, is she safe, etc. oh, and Clint's contact info if you can swing it?"

"I'm working for Stark now so yes I can. And how about you call Potts? Or go visit them if you're so concerned?"

"Hill."

"Face it, your icy facade is melting Agent. I'll send Barton's details to you and anything I find on Ms. Wesston. Also, I will need you to be present at the Tower on Monday at 0800 for some PR business. Can you make it?"

"Yes." And with that Nat hung up and took some deep breaths before trying to not panic. A quick glance in the mirror showed just how out of it she was. A quick shower helped center herself but Nat still felt like crawling out of her skin. Checking the Stark phone found several files from Hill the first being labeled 'Barton'. Instantly she felt like she could breathe easier as she clicked it open. It contained coordinates for a op in Albania, along with instructions for contacting either the handler, Agent Hurst, or any of the 3 undercover agents Barton, McGrant, and Bilton. 

A quick read through showed that her best bet was waiting til evening to reach him. So she flicked through the other files that were sent as well until she reached a 'Penelope Wesston'. It was much smaller then Nat was expecting but she opened it regardless and almost dropped the phone as it suddenly connected through to what appeared to be a lab.

"Oi! Widow!" Nat almost dropped it again as Stark himself was suddenly filling the screen. "Hills going to have to learn to hack better and code as well. Easy please to switch the file for a link. Anyways, Pep wanted to talk to you bout Pen, esp since most of her shits blacked out? Listed? What's the right term? I don't remember. And you realize that I happen to know precisely where my tech is at any time? I'm mean really..."

"Tony!" Nat breathed a sigh of relief as she heard Potts approach the screen. "Go do something else, this is girl talk." Stark left the visible area muttering as he went. Pepper appeared and settled down on a stool before looking closely at the screen in front of her. "Natasha, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I hear you know this Wesston?"

Pepper raised an eyebrow the the evasive answer "Yes I do. Penny and I went to school together and my mother moved in the same circles as Penny's maternal Aunt. You realize you could stay here and we wouldn't mind right? And any help you need, we can give it."

Nat ignored the offer and continued with her questioning. "So is she a threat?"

"No, not a threat. Smart girl. Entered the Marines straight out of high school. Currently a Lieutenant Commander and I think she's up for a promotion soon. Military family, and they've been together for what, almost 18 months I think. You'll love her when you meet her."

"How'd they meet?"

"Penny had a shore leave when she was docked in California. I know you're suspisious but you're barking up the wrong tree. Now, do you need anything? There's an account attached to the phone that we've topped up. Please use it."

In response Nat just closed the video chat before cursing loudly. It didn't matter that she seemed safe, Nat had a list of 'safe' people who turned out to be HYDRA. Her thoughts kept spiralling around and a round as if she was clawing at a cage. Slowly but surely everything began to darken before steadily going black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! And have a wonderful day!


	7. But before we go, Let's Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we learn more about the characters while they let their hair down, prank Coulson, and think about pranking Fury. Basically just a fluffy filler chapter before dinner with Penny's parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own any of the Characters characters unless they're OCs, otherwise just borrowing. Let me know if you wish to use any of it. I apologize if anyone seems to OOC. Enjoy!

To be honest Sam still didn't know who answered the door but he was currently on a couch in the living room listening to two wives swap stories about war wounds on their respective husbands. The other couch held three women discussing guns while several more were floating about fixing hair and makeup and comparing outfits. The easy chairs in the room held men who were leaning around the wandering ladies to discuss football and deployments. When the doorbell had rung Penny had shrieked something about time and outfit before barreling upstairs calling down behind her that "They had best clean up good!" So here he was in a button up and slacks wondering what this had to do with HYDRA until a sharp whistle pierced the air.

A rather short blonde was standing just up the staircase and holding a clipboard. "Are we missing anyone? Penny? On sorry, didn't see you there. I am officially calling this meeting of former Navy Brats to order. First order of business is to remember those who aren't here for whatever reason and offer our prayers for them." This was followed by several long moments of silence which the blonde finally broke. "Thank you, now as we all know, they'd want us to have fun so" and here she looked at the clip board "Clarence please take the floor." She stepped down and a tall lanky bald man rose from one of the chairs.

"Since Michelle is finally home from back to back deployments and Penny's on leave, we are going clubbing. We'll start at Murphy's til those who have to leave go, then onto the new club that replaces Esme's. The dds for tonight are Steve, Linda, Marcus, and Jo. The drivers have a list of people for each car. Let's go!" Sam found himself dragged along by a red head and into Penny's jeep which Steve was driving. Penny and another brunette joined them and they were off. It took about 25 minutes to reach Murphy's which turned out to be the local pub. He found a drink in his hands and ended up next to the red head from before who introduced herself as Michelle and it was from her that the evening was actually explained.

"Well, the core group of us is Jo, the blonde on the stairs, Penny, Clarence, Anne, Dave, Ryan and myself. We lost Lee in high school and Andy died just a couple of years ago. The two ladies you were sitting with were Dave's and Ryan's wives Anna and Trisha. Clarence's partner Beth was on the couch with Steph and Kate who a bunch of us met in basic and Marcus is Jo's husband and Linda is his sister. And basically we are all Navy Brats. Some us serve now, others don't but we still get together who's ever free every Thursday and whoevers turn it is gets to pick. So sometimes we party, go to movies, and once Jo made us go to her eldest sons Christmas Pagent last year."

"Do a lot of you have kids?"

"Yeah, Marcus and Jo have 3 boys, Dave and Anna have one of each, Ryan and Trisha have a little boy, and Linda and her partner whose in LA doing lawyer stuff adopted the cutest little girl a few years back. So basically they'll all leave before 10 usually to rescue the babysitter and the rest of us will continue on or leave as well. So that means Linda will take Ren and Beth along with the chick in the car with us earlier, Anne while Steve will drive you, me and Penny to the club."

"That's a lot of people."

"Yeah, I mean it's bigger group then normal because so many have either gotten leave or are currently between deployments but as a whole the group is smaller now. We don't see Andy's wife come to these any more and a couple of other people we've added over the years haven't made it because they either feel they can't because of 'health' reasons or because we've had to bury them. But that's life I guess. Come on, let's grab another drink before we start on world peace, this is just depressing."

So that's what they did. Several shots later and Sam's memory started to blur but certain things stood out. Like the belly shots once they hit Dance, which they all agreed was a stupid name. Or the table dancing later on. Or the bump and grind that Steve and Penny were doing on top of a table. Sam was fairly certain nobody would believe him, especially with the whole 'Captain America can't dance thing'. He also remembered mentioning that to the brunette, Anne, who promptly took photos. There was also Steve dancing on a stripper pole and more shots later on followed by a bar fight.

Suffice to say that waking up the next morning was difficult to say the least. It took several glasses of water, a bottle of Gatorade, and a few pain killers before Sam was willing to even try the coffee. So when Steve, Penny, and Noah showed up after the run or swim or whatever the first thing he did was demand quiet. The second and third things were vomit and moan. This caused soft laughter. Steve helped him to the study, gave him a mug of tea, and went to help Penny clean up. After everyone else had eaten they slowly and quietly trickled in to the study as well. This quiet managed to last all morning til Penny checked her email around 1030 which promptly caused her to start laughing. It was the pictures Anne had taken the night before along with a note to say that Kenzie would put a gag order on them if necessary and Linda wasn't awake yet. Sam borrowed the computer and scrolled through the pictures before finding a nice one of Steve and Penny together. He suspected they had either just kissed or were going to. Not that that mattered, he emailed it to himself and then sent it as a picture message to Nat. He hadn't got a response by the time lunch came around but something much more important happened. The cards arrived.

Penny opened the box and the evil look on her face made Sam want to turn and run for shelter. Steve retrieved a black pen and started signing the cards as Penny and Noah slipped them out of the protective casings and handed them to him. Sam ended up placing then back into the casing and soon they had a complete set of authentic signed Captain America cards. Noah boxed them while Penny made some calls before coming up with an address. After a quick hunt for postage the cards were ready to go along with a note written by Noah which read:

 

_Congratulations on_

_A) surviving (somewhat) Loki's attack on the Helicarrier._

_B)Project Tahiti_

_C)Your first job as a bus driver_

_D)HYDRA_

_Enjoy your reward!_

 

 

Noah took the box to be mailed as he left saying "And this is why we tried not to piss her off growing up! Anyway, I'll see you at dinner tonight. Have fun!"

Sam just shook his head and would have gone back to his pile of papers had he not caught sight of Steve's face. It was almost as evil as Penny's had been earlier and Sam suddenly wanted a bunker in which to hide in for the next however long it took for the reason for that look to fade into obscurity.

It was Penny however that asked the question. "So, what's the look for big guy?"

Steve blinked, shook his head and responded. "You know how Fury has that eye patch? I was just thinking we should send him a pirate hat or something just for kicks. What do you think?"

"We can save that for when he gets really annoying. Now we have to leave in about 2 hours so start packing up! I'm going to get ready."

"Fine! Be the better person." Steve muttered as Penny turned her computer off and headed upstairs.

Sam just shook his head and started stacking everything up before helping Steve lock it up. He proceeded to get ready and sat down to read until Penny came down and told him to move. They all piled into the jeep with Penny driving again and arrived about 10 minutes later in front of a large older house with a massive wrap around porch. Penny parked in behind someone's Ford before jumping out. Sam followed slowly behind with Steve taking up the rear carrying a pie that Sam still didn't know who baked it or even when. By the time they reached the front door Penny was already in and had left it open Behind her. Steve slipped his boots off  on the porch and walked down the hall leaving Sam standing awkwardly in the front  entryway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it!


	8. The last peaceful meal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner with Penny's parents and family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended too big so has been split. Which means it may still get edited some more. Also may get boring as the fun parts were in the second half. But it just read better split with a mini chapter with Nat in the middle. Whoops? Anyway: I don't own, just playing. Please ask before using, etc. enjoy!

"Let me guess, you must be Sam right?" Sam jumped and spun around to face Noah. Who had either dyed his hair black and gained tattoos or somehow duplicated himself. The clone Noah laughed at Sam's face before holding out his hand. "I'm Mike and going by that expression I'm guessing Noah forgot to mention his twin?"

Sam suddenly remembered a picture from the kitchen that had 3 men all dressed up as Captain America along with Steve out of uniform. He hadn't looked all that closely but now he remembered just how similar two of the men looked while the third had been much more lean then the other two. "No, nobody mentioned that. How many siblings are there?"

"Well, Noah's older then me by like 15 minutes. Then you've got Penny who you've met already. Leanne is 2 years younger then her and Charlie is 18 months younger then Leanne. She's currently deployed on an aircraft carrier so you'll meet everyone else but her."

"Mike ya idiot! Where'd ya go?" came a feminine southern drawl from farther in the house.

Mike just smiled before waving for Sam to follow him and calling back "Just ran out to grab the papers from the truck hon and ended up rescuing Sam"

Penny leaned around the side of a door further up and responded "I wondered where he'd gotten too, Steve!" She turned and yelled. A faint "Yes" was heard as Mike lead Sam further into the house. Penny proceeded to call back "You realize you lost Sam right?"

"I thought he was with you!"

"Seriously? How do you lose someone here? The house isn't that big" came another male voice, this time with a English accent.

A third voice that Sam recognized as Noah's chimed in "Its plenty big enough! Not all of us grew up with servant and gamekeepers and Country homes Max!"

What sounded like a fight suddenly broke out with several voices pipping in before Sam and Mike reached the back yard and paused. Penny and a short red head were standing on the patio sipping ciders while Noah appeared to be grappling with a lanky blond in the middle of the backyard. Steve stood in what appeared to be an outdoor kitchen off to the left talking to a thinner version of Noah with Penny's eyes and an older gentleman who had a salt and pepper crew cut and was obviously Penny's father. They appeared to be ignoring the wrestling match on the lawn and were instead studying the barbecue while drinking beer. Sam couldn't help but compare it to other family gathering and decided to just go with the flow. Which lasted all of 30 seconds before a voice rang out from behind. 

Sam had heard many voices yelling in his life. His parents when he was younger, his senior officers when he joined up, the injuried and dying on the battle field. But one type of voice always got him to do what it told him immediately. And it was that type of voice which froze the fighters, caused the girls to stop giggling and the three by the food came to attention. "Noah George and Maxwell Preston William! Just what do you think you are doing!" Sam turned around to see an older lady whose looks Penny definitely inherited. In fact, other then Penny's hair colour which appeared to match her Fathers,Penny was almost an exact younger copy of her mother. Who was currently marching down of the verandah, across the patio, and came to a stop standing over the two still lying on the lawn. Sam shivered as the sound of an irate head nurse washed over him. "You two know better. And we have guests. Inside and cleaned up now." 

Sam watched as the two picked themselves up and hurried inside. The woman who could only be Hope Wesston then turned to the three in the outdoor kitchen. "George dear, please don't over spice everything this time. Now," and she turned to the remaining 4, "whose going to introduce me?" 

Penny smile before walking over and grabbing Sam's arm. She then tugged him and by extension Mike over to the outdoor kitchen where her mother and the red head had moved too. "Everyone this is Steve's friend Sam. Sam, this is my mom Hope, my dad George, you've clearly met Mike, thats his his girlfriend Alice, and last but not least this is Charlie the baby of the family." He mock glare and tried to grab her but she dance backwards and hid behind Steve. "Behind you is Noah and Charlie's partner Max." 

Sam turned and came face to face with the blond from earlier. He ignored the tension and stuck out his hand "Pleasure to met you."

Max grinned and shook his hand. "Pleasures mine. And this isn't the first time we've met although I doubt you'd remember the first time."

"Huh?"

"About 4 years ago you and a guy named Riley pulled a few of my comrades out of a tight spot and gave the rest of us a chance to get move to a more defenable postion."

Sam's breath caught before he racked his brain for a few seconds before he remembered a mission that they had done to pull out a few injuried Royal Commandos out of a firefight in Afganistan. "You're a Commando?"

He saw a flash of teeth and a feral grin which gave him his answer before Max even opened his mouth and gave him the answer. "Definitely, so you guys out now?"

"Riley didn't make it out but yeah I did. Work at the D.C. VA office."

"Shit. Sorry. I'll stop now."

"It's fine."

Max just shook his head as several people nearby flinched. "It's never really ok. You can tell me to shut up if you would like. Now before we all get too serious someone change the subject!"

Sam decided right there that he quite liked the Brit so he gave him a way out. "So is everyone I'm going to meet part of some special group?"

Steve laughed "Nah, Charlie is a AAF pilot and Mike is a AAF heavy duty mechanic. Although their sister is in Navy intelligence."

"And I'm one of the junior CFO assitants for Fluor." Chimed in Alice.

Sam just shook his head before Hope began asking him questions about his family and pretty soon found himself talking about growing up with his father away and his mother and grandmother running the house. In return Hope told him about meeting George and the melding of a primarly Navy family into a family which served in all the military and paramilitary branches. He found out that she had started out as an Army nurse who had served in several MASH units along with her stateside service until she had become pregnant at 25 which saw her leaving the service and becoming a house wife who volunteered at the clinics near whatever base her husband was stationed at. 7 years later found her unable to have anymore children due to a difficult pregnancy. She then started part time work and 10 years later went back to working on the base hospitals. She bragged about her children and over fed him and generally reminded him of several of his aunts. By the time supper was over and dessert was eaten both George and her were embarrassing their children with stories of their childhoods. This continued on until the family had retired to the lounge where both Mike and surprisingly Max handed papers over to Penny.

"I called in some favours with my parents contacts to see what civilian records there were after the war dealing with POWs transfers since the aristocracy was still fairly ingrained in the British goverment of the time. I also managed to get a bunch of French ones as well. A friend of mine is looking into compiling Winter Solider sightings for MI6 and said he'd send a copy through when he finished."

"Bloody public school boy" was Mike's response as he laid his papers out on the coffee table. "Leanne sent these last night. Basically it's the info that you were after," and here he nodded at his Father, "and let's just say it's not pretty."

The Vice Admiral held up a had to forstall everyone's immediate questions before glancing at the papers. "I was discussing some cleanup procedures with SecNav when he mentioned that the CIA was writing up ideas of what to do with the more 'public' members of HYDRA. So I got on the vine and requested a copy. Suffice to say the response was a negative so I called in a few favours owed from NCIS and had a copy sent to Leanne's superior to send to me. And Micheal is right, it's not good. They want to make the more public faces vanish into Guatemala and the like and vanishing them from the publics consciousness while at the same time grabbing the less public and add them to the intelligence community's ranks." 

He was interrupted by Max at this point "Similar to what we're willing to do except none of them are going to be able to flip. MI6 and MI5 have drawn a line at that and are currently tearing through both domestic and international forces for any HYDRA sympathizers. 

It was Alice's turn to interrupt "I know most of the European Unions doing the same thang along with the commonwealth. And all the contractors be they suppliers or mercenaries have to do a complete in house cleanse before our contracts get renewed. It's just the American Government that's dragging its feet on that part. Which is normal, it usually goes troops then suppliers don't it?"

Hope smiled back before putting her two cents in "Now, I realize it doesn't look good but before we all start panicking let's make a game plan shall we? Penny, Noah was saying you have a time line started?"

"Yep. We are coding everything as well so we can put it in order."

"Good, keep at it. And put everything on it. Also, see if Linda's partner is willing to start a claim for re compensation and all of that for POWs and such. Max, make sure to keep a copy of the info you send on as well. Noah, keep helping your sister. Steve, relax before you vibrate out of your seat young man." Which elected a few chuckles "We will figure this out. And I'm sure the government will have learned not to play fast and loose with HYRDA members. Now, everyone else is on support and information gathering."

George cleared his throat before adding "People are interested in what we find. Not just about Barnes but about HYDRA in general, especially since they managed to stay under the radar this long. There is a think tank being set up by the navy to do the exact same as we are doing and the results will be compared. Also, an external inquiry has been started as opposed to the senate witch hunt that's happening in order to make sure that Zola doesn't happen again. So make sure to dot your i's and cross your t's. Now, what's everyone's plans for the week?"

"I ship out on Thursday for Africa unless that changes."

"Congrats Noah, hope you get eaten. Max and I are here til next Monday when it's back to jolly old England!"

"Shut up Charlie at least I won't get mouldy."

Mike had to raise his voice over the name calling "Alice is back to work on Monday and I've got nothing better to do then help I guess. I'll do legwork if it's needed?"

Steve nodded "That would help loads. We'll continue sifting through reports and then Penny figured we'd start following leads to find Bucky on Tuesday." Penny kicked him and after glaring at her briefly he continued "But if we gave you a few pics and a list you could go do some local scouting for us. Just don't ask too many questions as we don't want to tip our hands."

"We can do dates at the places provided they are not too weird." added Alice with a grin.

"Wonderful. Let us know in advance and send updates so if something happens we can do something about it. I have A and E shifts this weekend so George will be in charge. What time would you like him at your place sweetie?" Hope asked as she continued taking notes.

"Bout 9 or so? How's that sound Dad?"

"Works wonderful." Was George's reply. 

Sam just shook his head as the conversation turned to gossip about work colleagues and neighbours. They made it home around 10 that night and after Penny and Sam cleaned up and fed the cats while Steve locked the information they had gathered up. It ended up being a mutual desision to go to bed and would have been an early night had Sam's earlier desision not finally come back to haunt him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! The next portion should be up by the end of the week when I find time to edit it and then find WIFI.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


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